Jul 10, 2008

Business - Wimax to be launched in city of destiny

It is one among the first three cities to get the facility14 locations have been identified in the cityThe existing cell towers will be used for installation of the equipmentVISAKHAPATNAM: The tremendous growth in broadband connections during the last few years has made Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) authorities to choose Visakhapatnam, along with Pune and Ahmedabad, to be among the first three cities in the country for the test launch of WiMax facility. WiMax (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) is nothing but wireless broadband connectivity that can be used to provide hi-speed Internet access on laptops, mobiles and even on personal computers by connecting a modem at the users’ end. “There are 16,000 broadband connections in the city and though there is huge demand for more connections we are unable to provide the same as the existing capacity of telecom exchanges has been fully utilised,” Deputy General Manager G.V. Ramakrishna told The Hindu. The DGM has been promoted as General Manager (Marketing) of the North East Circle-I of BSNL, which covers Tripura, Meghalaya and Mizoram. He will be stationed at Shillong. He said that 14 locations have been identified in the city that include the industrial area, the upcoming Atchutapuram SEZ area and at Anandapuram, where a number of engineering colleges were located, for setting up of WiMax facility. The existing cell towers would be used for installation of the WiMax equipment that is expected to reach the city by September-end. The new facility would be particularly useful in areas like Atchutapuram where are a number of industries were expected to be set up but lack basic telephone facilities. Even within the city all the important exchanges are loaded to full capacity and there was no chance of giving new broadband connections pending augmentation of existing infrastructure. WiMax would take care of the demand to some extent.